The future--music of the sea
"Actually in theory it's not difficult to set up a marine protected area, but the reality is that it's very hard to put such legislation into practice and provide the necessary budget to maintain effective regulatory control," says Shao Kwang-tsao, pointing out a key concern. Green Island is a good example. In 1996, Green Island was recommended as an ecological tourism site by APEC. Unfortunately, the government failed to put in place effective protection policies, and as a result, open tourism has led to the region becoming polluted. Now Green Island is listed as being under a medium-level threat of environmental damage.
"At the present stage, there is a shortage of administrative officials to look after places like Kueishan Island, so the government needs a special authority to take control of marine protection and ecological tourism," suggests Cheng Ming-hsiu. In terms of legislative options for the creation of marine reserves, at present in Taiwan there is only legislation to cover national parks and fishing, and these provide little real power. Specific laws need to be drafted to cover Taiwan's marine resources as soon as possible.
The government has set up around 70 regions as protected areas in line with legislation covering such areas as cultural assets, wildlife protection, national parks, coastal reserves and fishing. But most of these areas have been designed to protect selected species (which may be significant either because they are almost extinct or may have some commercial value), rather than ecosystems as a whole. As a result, these regions are not managed as complete protected areas, and there are parts that totally lack any management or protection at all. So many existing "protected" areas have protection in name only.
"It's difficult to persuade mankind to recognize the importance of the ocean," argues Wu Hsiang-chien, director the team that prepared the establishment of Dongsha Atoll Marine National Park. Wu has seen the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia, and believes that Taiwan has to understand the seas as not just a source of delicious seafood, but as something that has a value in itself. Otherwise, if one day the ocean is damaged beyond repair, we will experience great sadness at such an enormous loss, and forever regret losing the opportunity to create a future surrounded by a rich and bountiful ocean.
Factfile--Marine Protected Areas
Setting up protected marine environments has been one the most important tasks in protecting global biodiversity. Shao Kwang-tsao claims that in the past, protection policies have emphasized land species. Over 12% of the global landmass has been given protection, but this is true of less than 1% of ocean areas.
Therefore, in 1998 during International Year of the Ocean, more than 2000 marine experts signed their names to an appeal for every nation connected with the ocean to reserve at least 20% of their territorial waters as marine parks by 2020.
In 2003, the World Protected Areas Conference listed marine protection as a key issue, and asked every nation to extend marine protected areas to cover 12% of the global marine environment within ten years.
In fact, marine reserves can take many different forms. Depending on local plans and laws, there are a variety of possible structures. At present, the most favored format is a marine reserve that does not limit non-extractive activities like fishing, recreational activities, shipping, or even military exercises.
However, because there are so many facets to this issue, it is often controversial. The favored concept of a marine reserve is in fact a descendant of the "precautionary principle." It is different from traditional fishery management methods, such as controlling fishing equipment and the size of catches of particular species. Marine reserves ensure a holistic perspective, and seek to ensure effective care of the entire ecosystem, not just particular species.
Despite Kueishan Island's having an area of only 2.85 square kilometers and a coastline of ten kilometers, its ecology is extremely diverse. Sulfurous emissions from hydrothermal vents on the sea bed nurture plankton, providing nutrition for life-forms at the bottom of the food chain, and in turn sustaining marine animals and the more than 300 species of flora and fauna on the island.
The original residents of Kueishan Island moved to Toucheng, Ilan County 31 years ago, and more than 90% of them still make a living from fishing, just as their ancestors did.
Activities including sailing, surfing and canoeing are encouraged in the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area. While this allows people to enjoy the beautiful waters, such activities may also pose a threat to marine reserves. Hence the benefits need to be carefully weighed against any negative impact on the environment.
Although the Taiwanese mainland occupies only one four-thousandth of the Earth's landmass, it has more than 3000 fish species, accounting for around one tenth of the global total. There are 43 species of exquisite butterfly fish living amongst its coral reefs, making this the foremost area in the world for these species.
This is Kueishan Island's spiritual center--Puto Temple.